Aelfric

Having tried the Twins with 5 Bladelords, do you think there is value in increasing them to a unit of 10. I feel that with 10, you can have more tactical choices than holding an objective, that it could allow you to take on larger parts of your opponent's forces. It would be good to hear from somebody who has some practical experience of using them. Was 5 a bit limiting or is 10 a bit overkill and the points better invested elsewhere?

There is always the possibility that they will teleport out after combat, but that is not necessarily a weakness. If you have eliminated your foe during the combat, then they can reappear in the same space. If it happens in your opponent's combat phase, then you could return to that spot in your turn. This is also probably happening during mid to late game, so there will likely be other places where they could be beneficial if they can't return there. I also think there is an element of mind-games here. Your opponent will know that they may teleport away to somewhere else; if they have an unguarded or lightly guarded objective elsewhere it may give them pause before attacking, and it's only right and proper after all to remind them of this ability just in case they've forgotten in the heat of battle. It will also require a fairly large commitment to take out the Twins and 10 Bladelords on a 5++. Thats an extra 20 wounds for the Twins, a third of which will be mitigated by the DPR and the combined output of the two units is not shabby either, especially from turn 3 onwards. No strategem is without risk, but then isn't that part of the enjoyment - to make plans and savour the satisfation of seeing it work or the anguish of seeing those carefully laid plans going awry. At least in this instance you have the opportunity of turning the forced teleport to your advantage, so all is not necessarily lost.

I think there's a good chance that Wanderers may be allowed in a Kurnothi army on a 1 in 4 basis - it would be the simplest way to do it. It would encourage those who already own them to start another army and give more people a reason to buy them if they don't. We get more choices and GW get more money. It would be a win- win (-win?).

I think all the named characters are keyworded Ymetrica to prevent them benefitting from the other Great Nation abilities. Ymetrica only benefits Alarith so they get no benefit there either. Basically they live or die on their warscroll and any synergy with other units. Perhaps play-testing showed they were just too powerful when combined with sub-faction rules.

The downsides are can't take an artifact or command trait and keyworded to Ymetrica. Personally , I would take the generic Lord Regent for these reasons and the lower points cost.

I'm considering running 10 Bladelords with the Twins. They have the Scinari keyword, are a 2 cast wizard with a 3+ save and decent melee, so can be fairly aggressive with them. The two units together should be fairly capable on the front line and if you give them Lambent light, they can help your Sentinels at the same time. Alternatively, give them Protection of Hysh and use Mystic Shield on the Bladelords to make both units tankier. What do people think?

So points adjustments may be the answer - Bladelords down to 100, Wardens up to 140 and it starts to become a realistic choice. Assuming 3.0 is coming, this battletome will have been written with that in mind, so that may also alter the dynamics, though what changes would make Bladelords better I have no idea. Maybe we'll go back to unbinding at 18" instead of 30" or bravery will go 40K style. We can only wait and see. Something may appear in the FAQ, like the sunmetal ability. It wouldn't be the first time a whole ability was missing from a warscroll.

All that is true, unfortunately. However, given the prevelance of negatives to hit and 3+ saves or better, there are still situations where they would do well. No doubt the Wardens' ability to cause MW will still place them ahead though, since MWs ignore both minus to hit and saves. They do have the 4+ against spells, which I suppose is something. Well, at least their Guardian ability has some uses and they will be a battleline unit, which helps in some scenarios. Another bonus, of course, is they don't have 4" pikes. Perhaps, what they really are is a small scalpel, of 5 - 10, to be air-dropped in to deal with specific threats, rather than facing all-comers and holding objectives like wardens. I know I'm reaching, but I want them to work in some capacity.

Perhaps, if 3.0 does happen, their role may become more evident. They'd be good against Skeleton and Zombie hordes, certainly, and they are not far off. I've been wondering if doubling down on them may work with 15 using their 2" reach perfect strike accompanied by a hero for bonuses. It is consistant reliable damage you can plan for.

Speaking of the ribbons, do you think it is possible to leave off some of them and still retain stability? When I look at the picture I feel like they get in the way of seeing the actual Fox Spirit and I find that slightly frustrating.

Thanks for the warning. I haven't bought him yet as I have vouchers for my FLGS waiting from Christmas and want to wait til they're open again - April 12th is looking likely, so not long. Have you assembled it completely, or in sections for painting?

You have to fight and therefore pile in - but how far you pile in is up to you. So you could just pile in 0.1 mm if you wanted to avoid getting closer to the enemy.

There again, they are better at standard Endless Spells - outside of Hysh of course. Unfortunately, all my CoS models are Aelves, so I shall probably give this a pass. I have enough on my hands painting Lumineth; no time to spend on humans .

Given the new Cities introduced within Broken Realms so far, you may get your wish with Broken Realms: Belakor. He's obviously been up to something nefarious; subverting one of Sigmar's cities could be part of his grand plan.

How about a Cathallar and 20 Sentinels.

Except, unlike Hand of Gork, you can use it within 3" of the enemy so can teleport out of combat.

Sorry, already taken.

A CP costs 50 points and I reckon an artifact is probably worth about the same, so if you want more of these and are taking the units anyway, a small rule and lower drops are bonuses really. (Alternatively, you could take a ballista).

If "counts as slain" is identical to "slain", then why use the "counts as"? GW could easily just say when a model flees from battleshock it is slain. The point is they don't. There is a difference between counts as a thing and the thing itself. Whatever the thing is that is referred to hasn't actually happened; it counts as the thing in order to allow the criteria for another rule to be satisfied. I don't accept that "counts as" literally means " does not count as" because those are not the two states I am comparing. I am comparing counts as a thing with the actual thing.

Well, one of us must be wrong, but goodness knows which. I wish and hope that edition 3.0 has a lexicon of rules terms and their concise definition. Perhaps that would clear up these types of issues. All I can say is that I will be applying my interpretation when fielding rooriders and I hope that any LRL player you face will do likewise. If we're lucky, we may get an answer in the FAQ (hopefully the right one ).

Well, when a model flees to battleshock it counts as slain, but it isn't actually slain. The term "Counts as" is, as far as I'm aware, used to allow conditions to be met for the purposes of using other abilities or rules with certain prerequisite requirements, but not the actual thing it is counting as. I'm prepared to be proved wrong, though.

It seems ideal for a Lore Seeker after teleporting onto an objective - you dont want them to charge anyway. At the very least they'll have to use a spell slot to get rid of it ( unless it's Tzeentch with an LoC).

The core rules say you can only pick a unit to fight if it is within 3" of an enemy unit or made a charge move that turn. Pile in only occurs when a unit is picked to fight. Although the Windrunners count as having charged, this will not allow them to pile in unless they have actually made a charge move. Therefore, it will only come into play if they are within 3" of an enemy unit and haven't charged.

as @Ganigumo says, if you are using the model's warscroll and the endless Spell rules, then if there is a contradiction the model's warscroll, which has a move characteristic, over-rules the core rules for endless Spells.

Warscrolls trump core rules.